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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  October 29, 2013 6:00am-8:01am PDT

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>> thanks for watching us here on "new day." it's time for "newsroom." >> and the one and only martin savidge. >> best voice in tv. >> good morning to you guys. good morning, everyone. happening now in the "newsroom." >> that's why i'm initiating now a review to make sure that what they're able to do doesn't necessarily mean what they should be doing. >> damage control. the president now asking for his own answers about what the nsa is up to. >> plus, another twist in the aaron hernandez case. investigators are looking at whether he was involved in gun trafficking. >> and is it real or is this just rhetoric? russian president vladimir putin welcomes all olympians, regardless of sexual orientation. we're going to dig into that. you are live in the "cnn
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newsroom." good morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow in today for carol costello. >> and i'm martin savidge. questions about nsa spying on world leaders. what did president obama know and when did he know it? today, the directors of the national intelligence and nsa testify on capitol hill. the president has ordered a review of intelligence gathering. cnn's jim sciutto joins us from washington. >> reporter: the administration now considering hard limits on intelligence gathering. particularly of word leaders overseas. this is part of a see view that began this summer. the same review which is how the white house says the president first learned on spying on foreign leaders such as german's angela merkel. saying the president did not know she in particular was a target and would not know specific targets as a matter of
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policy. another official telling cnn he would have had to have known about the framework of such programs, including the countries targeted. still, a lot of hard questions for the administration to answer. president obama would not confirm the nsa was spying on the phone calls of u.s. allies like germany's chancellor angela merkel. in an interview, he both defended u.s. intelligence activities. >> the national security operations generally have one purpose and that is to make sure the american people are safe. >> reporter: and conceded that maybe they'd gone too far. >> i'm initiating, now, a review, to make sure what they're able to do doesn't necessarily mean what they should be doing. >> senior administration officials tell cnn president obama did not know about the nsa surveillance of merkel and other allies until earlier this year. when he found out, he ordered a stop to some of the programs. the democratic chairman of the senate intelligence committee
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dianne feinstein, usually an ally of the white house, says that's not good enough and want s a, quote, total review of all u.s. intelligence programs. in washington this week pressing for the limits. telling me eu citizens find u.s. spying disturbing. >> they feel very uneasy. they don't know why it's happening. why our strongest ally is doing it. >> reporter: amid reports the u.s. surveillance of allies began back in 2002, well before the obama administration, here's one explanation former vice president cheney gave cnn's jake tapper. >> we are vulnerable, as shown on 9/11, and you never know what you're going to need when you need it. the fact is, we do collect a lot of intelligence, without speaking about any particular target or group of targets, that intelligence capability is enormously important to the united states, to our conduct, our foreign policy, to defense matters, to economic matters, and i am a strong supporter of
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it. >> the director of national intelligence james clapper announced overnight he is declassifying a trove of documents about the collection under the foreign intelligence surveillance acts, or first ssa. later today, clapper and the head of the nsa, keith alexen direction will be testify on the hill about that program. you can be sure they're going to be getting questions about spying overseas, how far it should go and what limits the administration is considering placing on it now. >> this is a huge story, especially in europe. jim sciutto, thank you very much. republican senator lindsey graham turning up the heat on the obama administration for its handling of last year's benghazi rror attack and its aftermath. the outspoken critic of the administration is threatening to block all presidential nomination, before the senate until survivors of that attack testify before congress. take a listen to graham on fox news.
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>> for god sakes, let the house have a select committee where you get three or four committees together to look at this situation as one unit, rather than stove piping. and where are the survivors? 14 months later, steve, the survivors, the people who survived the attack in benghazi, have not been made available to the u.s. congress for oversight purposes. so i'm going to block every appointment in the united states senate until the survivors are being made available to the congress. i'm tired of hearing from people on tv and reading about stuff from books. we need to get to the bottom of this. >> graham's threat comes in the wake of a "60 minutes" report that eyewitnesses to the attack in libya describe warning signs they saw leading up to it. one, a former british soldier who trained guards at the compound's gates. with another group of libyans charged with defending the compound. listen. >> saying, these guys are no good, you need to get them out of here.
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>> you also kept saying, if this place is attacked, these guys are not going to stand and fight? >> yes, i used to say it all the time. in the end, i got quite bored of hearing my own voice saying it. >> well, green beret commander lieutenant colonel andy wood, you see him, we will bring him up in a moment, he was one of the top american security officials in libya. he told "60 minutes" he raised concerns directly with ambassador stevens just three months before stevens was killed in the attack. listen to him. >> i made it known in a meeting, you are going to get attacked. you are going to get attacked in benghazi. it's going to happen. you need to change your security profile. >> shut down operation? >> move out temporarily or change locations within the city. do something because you are being targeted. >> let's talk about this more with cnn's ethina jones.
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the senate is expected to take up several high-profile judicial appointments. could graham block or delay any of these? >> hi, poppy. under senate rules, senator graham can single-handedly hold up the entire confirmation process. it would take 60 votes to use some procedural moves to get past his objections. as you know, 60 votes that 60-vote threshold is a high bar to pass. this is not something new to the administration. senator grade held up the nomination of john brennan to be cia director because he had questions about benghazi. he wanted to hear from the white house when the president first contacted the libyan government about the attack. so this is something the administration has had to deal with, this back and forth over the senate confirmation process. you may also remember over the summer senator rand paul, the republican of kentucky, put a hold on the confirmation of james coupmbe as fbi director
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because he had questions about drones in the u.s. this is something under senate rules he is able to do, is able to stand in the way of all of these confirmation votes. the real question is whether senator reid could get the votes needed to get past it and whether these witnesses that senator graham wants to hear from are going to be produced. >> he said this on "fox and frie friends" yesterday morning, so there's been 20-odd hours or so for people to react to this on capitol hill. >> so far, we haven't heard from senate majority leader harry reid about this. the white house has said this is a political move. they've acknowledged there wasn't enough security in benghazi. the white house arging all along when it comes to these confirmation proess is to allow a vote for these nominees to go forward and not be blocked for political reasons. but the fact of the matter is, senator graham has the power to do this under the rules of the senate. this one senator can stand in the way without -- unless there's that 60 votes to get
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past him. >> athena jones, appreciate the reporting, thank you. believe it or not, it's been four weeks to the day. i imagine the white house seems longer since obama care and the website was launched and then promptly crashed. next hour, that debacle faces blistering criticism on capitol hill. that as a federal administrator has to explain her agency's failures in creating that website. testifying today. and of course today's hearing an sets the stage for her boss, health and human services secretary kathleen seb beaelius faces a grilling from lawmakers tomorrow. there is a new shocker now hitting home for millions of americans. many may lose their private insurance coverage that they have now. let's get the very latest from senior white house correspondent brianna keilar. this has got to be going against what many heard the president
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say, which is they wouldn't lose. >> reporter: the white house now admitting that some people will see their health plans change. that does go against what we heard president obama promise. the white house is also saying it might not actually be or it will not actually be a bad thing for many people. one of the president's longtime promises about his namesake health care reform plan -- >> if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. >> reporter: -- is coming under intense scrutiny, as white house officials admit some plans will cease to exist under the law. >> it's true there are existing health care plans on the individual market that don't meet those minimum standards and, therefore, do not qualify for the affordable care act. there are some that can be grandfathered if people want to keep insurance that's substandard. what is also true is americans who have insurance on the existing individual market will now have numerous options
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available to them. >> reporter: president obama making an obama care pitch to young people. you must sign up for health insurance to avoid a fine. >> when you look at the number of young people who actually want health insurance but are having trouble affording it, the fact we're making it affordable for them for the first time, that's a big deal. >> reporter: a new study shows 70% of eligible americans between 18 and 34 can now purchase coverage for less than $100 per month. that's if they can sign up. health care.gov was knocked offline sunday, along with the data hub that verifies eligibility for government subsidies. service was restored monday. as the health and human services department aimed for a november 30th deadline to get the site fully operational. it's giving detailed updates. the latest, in part, we're also getting information on which parts of the application are causing the most errors. enabling us to prioritize what we fix next. now, the website is key to
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getting young people to sign up. they tend to be of course more tech savvy and they also tend to be more healthy. that, martin, is why they're key to making all of obama care work, because they will offset, is the plan, the older, less healthy, read, more expensive, ton provide health care for. >> they're absolutely essential. brianna keilar. thank you very much for joining us from the white house. we've got some new numbers just into cnn and they're good. we learned home prices climbed again in august. according to the s&p case shill, the sampling of major city, showed a rise of 12.8%. that's another sign the nation's housing market is making slow but of course steady recovery. good news. >> slow but study. it's been a long time coming back but it is coming back. still to come in the "newsroom," aaron hernandez not only accused murder. >> he's also being investigated
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good morning, everyone, time for a check of your top stories. >> two inmates that escaped from an oklahoma jail are back in jail today. they found them about 20 miles from the jail. two other men who escaped with them are still on the run. all four made a clean getaway, after breaking a maintenance hatch in their shower. texas authorities are investigating a shocking murder spree near dallas. saying a man apparently killed five people. in four locations.
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including burning one of the victims. no word on the motive, no word of the i.d.s on the victim. the suspect is in custody. a paperwork snafu apparently keeping jesse jackson jr. from starting his prison sentence. the former congressman reported to form prison, but he's not technically in federal custody. as his lawyers try to sort things out. and another strange twist in the murder case of aaron hernandez. a source tells cnn the former football star is being investigated for gun trafficking. that news just one day after massachusetts state police served his former teammate with a subpoena related to the investigation. we turn to cnn national correspondent susan candiotti. what more can you tell us about that? >> reporter: of course, we know there's a first degree murder
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charge against aaron hernandez for the execution-style of a man in june and now we're learning the same grand jury that's been investigating that case is looking into whether hernandez might be involved in gun trafficking. according to our sources, what they're looking at in part stems from the discovery of an assault-style weapon that was hidden in a vehicle. that was taken from florida to massachusetts. that's when the gun was discovered. now, why he is involved, might be involved, i should say, is another matter, but he was served with a subpoena. he's a center for the miami dolphins. he was served with a subpoena on sunday in foxboro after the miami dolphins finished playing the new england patriots. >> do we have any idea where this investigation's going from here? >> reporter: it will be interesting to see what, if anything, we learned after he presumably testifies before the grand jury.
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as an example. now, he and hernandez were teammates when they both played for the university of florida. now, both he and his brother, his twin brother, were pictured in a photograph that was shown on twitter some time ago and they were wearing hats that read "free hernandez." back in july, after hernandez had been charged with the murder of boyd. they did issue an apology later, saying they realize that was an insensitive thing to do. >> what's the latest on the double homicide in boston? >> reporter: a lot of troubles. along with being charged with murder, there's a grand jury in boston. we still don't know what they came up with yet. looking into whether hernandez is linked to an unsolved double homicide from july 2012. that grand jury investigation is very active, ongoing. >> all right, susan candiotti, thank you very much. still to come, a
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controversial russian law on homosexuality has many threatening to boycott the winter games in sochi. >> but now russia's president says that everybody's welcome. what's going on? that's next. [ male announcer ] this is brad. his day of coaching begins with knee pain, when... [ man ] hey, brad, want to trade the all-day relief of two aleve for six tylenol? what's the catch? there's no catch. you want me to give up my two aleve for six tylenol? no. for my knee pain, nothing beats my aleve.
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russia's president vladimir putin is rolling out the welcome mat for gays and lesbians in next year's winter olympics in sochi. >> he assured officials there will not be any discrimination at the winter games despite russia's controversial law on
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homosexuality that has had many threatening to boycott the games. >> translator: we're doing everything, both the organizers and our athletes and fans, so that participants and guests feel comfortable in sochi regardless of nationality, race or sexual orientation. >> so phil, when this law made all of the headlines in recent months, there were a lot of people calling on sponsors, big-name companies, to pull out of the game, don't support the games. and of course sponsors are key. i'm wondering after hearing this from putin, is this real, is the sense on the ground this is real or rhetoric? >> well, you're certainly right. the criticism of this law has put a lot of people in a very awkward position. the olympic committee, sponsors, so forth, they don't want to be
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associated with an olympic games that runs the risk of being accused of not living up to olympic ideals. clearly is attempt by putin to cool some of the anger, repair some of the damage done to russia's reputation but also the reputation of the sochi games. by russia's gay propaganda law. this is the law here that makes it illegal to tell children that gay and straight relationships are equal. it has been branded as discriminatory by many people around the world. russia insists it is just about protecting children. despite the russian defense, this has been suggestion, the games be boycotted, although it hasn't been seriously embraced. more serious, a threat to the games has been the talk of protests and demonstrations during the games in solidarity are russia's gay community. that is something that president doesn't want. he does not want these games to be tarnished in any way. he does not want this to become the dominant issue in russia's chance to shine before the world. >> what's the sense of people on
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the ground with you after hearing this? >> well, the intriguing thing about this law, this country, is that it is supported by a majority of the population. this is a highly conservative traditional population increasingly close to the russian orthodox church. and its beliefs. those beliefs do not include tolerance and understanding and acceptance towards gay people. that said, russia does not like to be bossed around either. so for vladimir putin to really come out and say this, to extend something of an olive branch, to make this concession, to make this public statement, that in itself is quite extraordinary. and it shows the pressure that putin, the russian government feels over this issue, poppy. >> phil black, thank you, appreciate the reporting. a big announcement from the nation's biggest employer. >> that's walmart.
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they're promoting thousands of its employees and it is trying to answer its critics. christine romans has just spoken with walmart's ceo and she'll join us with that interview. for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer. be ready with children's motrin. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement
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and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? we got the ball rolling. in cities across the country, coca-cola joined with communities and local leaders to roll out a summer filled with activity. from atlanta to l.a., people all over found that getting moving can be fun. in fact, it can be a day at the beach! all in all, we inspired three million people
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♪ weaving it through the wire ♪ switch me on ♪ i want to touch you ♪ you're just made for love ♪ i need ooh la la la la la good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm martin savidge. >> i'm poppy harlow in today for
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carol costello. the nation's largest retailer is announcing a big boost to the employees who may be helping you this holiday season. it is going public with news of thousands of employee promotions and responding to critics who say it underpays a number of its employees. our chief business correspondent christine romans sat down with the u.s. ceo of walmart. she joins us with that interview. he doesn't come out and talk a lot publicly. first of all, what's walmart announcing here? >> they're saying they're going to promote sales associates, 30,000 of them, between now and the end of the year, just these on the spot promotions. this is on track now for walmart to have 160,000 promotionings this year. that's about what they had last year. so why are they announcing it? well, i'm calling it a bit of a charm offensive, a public relations offensive. they've had some bad press recently, quite frankly, about how much their employees have
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made. they make about $12.83 an hour, more than the retail average. if that were a full-time job, it would still be only $26,000 a year. that's what the headlines have been. walmart saying, look we promote people, and we're doing 30,000 promotion, right now. >> i wonder if he talked about how much of a promotion in terms of wage promotions. and also this issue, this fight that walmart has been in the middle of, because it's the biggest single employee in this country, employing 1.4 million people here of a living wage, quote/unquote, living wage versus minimum wage or pay a lot of the workers there are getting. >> walmart pays more than the minimum wage, more than $12 an hour even. but there are a lot of people who say that's simply, that's not enough. you can't live in this country. you can't send a kid to college on some of these jobs. quite frankly, these are not the kind jobs that are earning the salaries we had a generation ago when people made much more than that working in factories.
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these are service industry jobs, not the manufacturing jobs that really built the middle class. i asked him, should we raise the minimum wage, should it be about a living wage, and this is what he told us. >> the discussion around the starting wage, minimum wage, is one the country needs to have. but that's not the issue. the issue isn't where you start. it's where you go to once you started. >> the mobility. >> the mobility. so raising the minimum wage will change the starting wage but it won't adjust to where people can go to and the career opportunities that exist in the country today. >> that's part of what he's trying to say about walmart. they do have that mobility. their store managers make anywhere from $50,000 to $170,000 a year, so he's saying they do have that mobility. i asked him, are you worried that so many of the jobs the country is creating are low-wage jobs that don't have mobility, and he said yes, he is concerned about that. >> this is what walmart has also become a topic for political
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fodder, right? you had one democrat not too long ago accusing some of the company executives of being, quote, welfare kings. explain what they mean by that. and then his response to that. >> yeah, welfare king, that's quite a statement, to call the -- america's largest company's executive's welfare kings. that was from a congressman from illinois who said when they look at the data, taxpayer subsidies of workers who work at walmart, they see tax payers filling the gap of low wagers. i asked him about this report from the committee, estimating 300 worker, walmart supercenter in wisconsin for example, would likely cause taxpayers $904,000 a year in employee -- in taxpayer subsidies, medicaid, welfare benefits, other benefits, and this is what he said. >> we are no different than any other retailer in america. we provide opportunities for
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people to join the company and to grow. the level of subsidy that exists is an issue that the, you know, the government decides. >> he also wanted to point out and did a couple times in the interview that those critics are influenced by pro union groups, you know, who want to unionize walmarts. he said, we provide a good entry level job. they are the biggest player. there's nobody bigger than walmart. what walmart does really, really matters. what they're trying to say, amidst all this discussion about are they not paying enough, they're trying to show they do promote people and they are a place to work where you do have some mobility. that's the company line. >> yeah, whether the criticism is fair or unfair, they're coming out, they're talking about it, which is always, always a good thing. you're going to have more of the interview on your show "your money," this weekend, right? >> i will.
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it's rare to hear them sit down. sometimes you can go months without hearing from corporate executives of walmart. it's been a long time since i've been able to sit down. i really wanted to talk to them also about the consumer. you know, he says the consumer's very smart and savvy but he's worried about the shutdown. he's worried about the washington intransigents and what's that going to mean for consumers. no one knows what's going on with the american consumer more than walmart, that's for sure. so i'll have more of that for you. >> christine, thanks. investors are watching the bell and the start of the two-day federal reserve meeting. the bell's already rung. let's go straight to cnn's allison topic at the new york stock exchange. >> we got a new housing report that is showing good news. it was on home prices, showing that home prices in the biggest
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20 new york cities are up 12.8% in august. the report is much better than wall street expected. you see these prices really going up in the areas across the country that were hit the hardest. like in las vegas, in detroit, in los angeles. and what that means is that fewer people are under water on their homes and it's becoming easier for them to sell their homes. but analysts say if you think housing pricings are just going to continue shooting up higher, keep in mind the peak is behind us, that yes, prices are up, but these gains are slowing because we are seeing mortgage rates slowly creep higher. we are seeing fewer people go into contract on new homes. so on homes themselves. so those factors can wind up scaring off prospective homebuyers. that's the tradeoff you tonight see, that the home selling is back. but on the other side of it, you don't really want to see huge jumps in prices. you want to see a healthy pace of recovery especially since the housing market, martin, is still in recovery mode. >> let's talk about apple.
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disappointing profit news yesterday, right? >> we've been watching this stock since apple reported after the bell yesterday. it's really been all over the place. it was down 4% last night. now it's up almost 1%. this is all about its earnings. and the headlines. they've got some really big numbers. 34 million iphones were sold last quarter. 14 million i-pads were sold. it was $38 billion in sales. now, all those numbers were better than wall street expected. the ceo tim cook said apple is stronger than ever. but there are some on wall street that are getting kind of worried because it looks like shoppers are out there bargain hunting for these products. they're buying apple's older models. that wound up hitting apple's bottom line. apple's cfo is not too concerned about it. at this moment, investors aren't either. apple shares at $532 a share. care for one, martin? >> i do, actually. it's kind of an interesting trend. alison kosik, thanks so much. checking our top stories,
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$9.7 billion, that is how much the u.s. government has lost so far on the sale of most of the general motors shares it received for a bailout four years ago. the treasury reported the loss in a quarterly report to congress. a top medicare official expected to face a really tough question on capitol hill next hour over the disappointing rollout of the obama care website. that hearing sets the stage for tomorrow when health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius will testify. on sunday, healthcare.gov was knocked offline. service has been restored. also on capitol hill, the directors of the national intelligence agency and the nsa will appear in front of lawmakers as outrage over spying accusations continues to grow. the nsa reportedly tapped into the phones of about 35 world leaders, including german chancellor merkel. sources differ on when the white house learned of the phone taps
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of foreign leaders. chris brown now a free man after that weekend brawl we told you about yesterday that led to his arrest. >> a judge reduced the charges against the 24-year-old singer. we'll tell you why he could still face a lot of legal trouble. [ laughter ] smoke? nah, i'm good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. why would i take one pepcid® when i could take tums® throughout the day when my heartburn comes back? 'cause you only have to take one... [ male announcer ] don't be like the burns. just one pepcid® complete works fast and lasts.
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reduced charges for singer chris brown after a weekend brawl in washington, d.c. a judge reduced the charge to simple assault to a misdemeanor. flashing a peace sign at his fans. you see him right there. but the singer could be in very serious legal trouble. "showbiz tonight" anchor a.j. hammer joins us from new york. what do these reduced charges mean for brown, because he was already opn probation.
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>> the probation rules from his felony domestic violence conviction after he beat up rihanna four years ago required brown to stay out of any kind of legal trouble. this new arrest and potential new crime even without a conviction can trigger a violation of that probation. a judge can decide to send him to prison for the duration of his probation, that can be up to a year. brown has to report to his l.a. probation officer and ultimately it's a superior court judge in los angeles who will decide whether or not there's going to be prison time for chris brown. the l.a. courts haven't commented on this yet. brown's side is saying he didn't break any law. he's pleading not guilty. his attorney has been arguing brown's security guard was just protecting the singer and brown was protecting himself, which is obviously legal. the victim wasn't fighting back and was getting hit in the face hard enough to give him a bloody nose and send him to the hospital where he was treated
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for bruises and swelling. so we have a couple different stories going on. >> it's all going to play out in court. when will we see brown in court? >> both men are expected to be in court in d.c. where the incident took place on november 24th. until then, brown is required to stay away from victim. brown is expected to eed to appa los angeles court for a hearing on his probation. two different court dates. >> on two different matters. a.j., thanks. all right, new in the next hour of "newsroom," a doctor on trial for the murder of his beauty queen wife. his mistress already told the court that she went to the wife's funeral. what else could we hear from her when she takes the stand today? plus, this -- ♪ give me a sign >> that's right, britney spears, we're going to tell you about her fighting crime on the high seas. we're not joking.
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why her music has seriously become a secret weapon for some ship captains. that's all ahead at 10:00. for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer. be ready with children's motrin.
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or lasts longer. medicare part d plan did you know that if you enroll in a where walmart is a preferred pharmacy, you could save up to 80% on your co-pays over other pharmacies? this could lower your prescription co-pays to as low as a dollar so you can enjoy the things that really matter. and now that we're a preferred pharmacy for many national plans, it's never been easier to save. choose any plan where walmart is a preferred pharmacy provider by logging on to walmart.com/rxplans now through december 7th. save money. live better. walmart.
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so you can help make a bond... i got it. that lasts a lifetime. the chase mobile app. so you can. good morning, everybody. it's time for a check of the top stories. even tweets from president obama's twitter account aren't safe from hackers apparently. the activist group is claiming responsibility for altering links in a pair of tweets on monday. one directed followers to a video of a montage of attackings. tonight, loved ones will say their final good-bye to andy lopez. a police officer shot and killed the 13-year-old because he appeared to be carrying an assault rifle. it turned out to be a plastic gun. a preliminary autopsy report says the officer fired eight rounds at the scene and andy
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lopez died of bullets to the chest and right hip. o.j. simpson's south florida mansion will be auctioned off online. a judge signed off on the deal to sell his lavish home. according to reports, the property's and then in weather. take a look at this. wirnd wonderland for some folks out west. an averaging of 4 to 7 inches fell in parts of wyoming and -- we wish those folks. good luck with that today. >> winter here we come. >> new jersey governor chris christie is spending today visiting communities impacted by superstorm sandy. today marks one year after that tragic storm. there is still a long way to go for many people hit by sandy. in seaside heights, that's right. on the jersey shore, millions of
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reported to rebuild only to have a massive fire destroy part of the boardwalk that was ravaged by sandy. and really a one-two punch for them. but they are jersey strong. and the rebuilding is under way. >> reporter: when superstorm sandy slammed ashore one year ago swallowing this board waum, it took this hot dog shop with it. >> it was devastation. >> but he re-opened this summer, unwilling to give up. how was the summer for business? >> it was slow. it was a year of survival. >> reporter: then in a one-two punch, his new restaurant was wiped out in a september fire that demolished 60 businesses. >> it was probably the biggest feeling of helplessness i've ever had in my life. >> reporter: you named one superstorm? >> that's the only type i ever
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want to see again. >> reporter: this man is building back the pier. >> what we accomplished in several months should have taken a few years. >> reporter: but a large chunk of the pier still isn't rebuilt. and not knowing how many people will return, he's not sure it's worst the investment. seaside's mayor estimates business was down 30% this summer. >> there was a time after sandy that we didn't know if we would be open. >> reporter: he says rebuilding could cost up to $20 million. >> reporter: this town gets whacked by sandy and then this fire. >> it's 'a punch in the gut. i'm not going to kid you. you sit there -- there's no reason why. there's no good answer. the only thing you can do is deal with it.
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>> reporter: at the beach comber bar and grill something astounding happened. the businesses on both sides of his restaurant burned down but his did not. >> fire, storm. we're here. this is our life and how we make our living. the lesson is we're jersey strong. >> reporter: strong. a good word to describe folks here. and what this man built twice, he's building again come hell or high water. >> if i can get my doors open and pay my rent and pay my employees, i'll be happy. i'll be be happy. i'll be open. that's the goal. >> they embody resilience. bubba, right there, who you just saw rebuilding for a third time told me that he has to get a second job to afford to get by in the offseason. but that's hard to do when you're trying to bay to get your business rebuilt. and another thing, all these homes along the jersey shore that aren't rebuilt, people aren't renting them out and living in them, and that means
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less tourists and residents to support these businesses. it's been tough. but they have come so far. >> we still have a lot of this with katrinaen. and even though it looks dark and people feel like, wow, haven't made much progress, it happens. still to come, we should tell you about boston's john lester. turned in another postseason pitching gem as the red sox takes game five of the world series. which means they're one away. orbiting the moon in 1971. md afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa.
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we know what it means to serve. ido more with less with buless energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind. medicare part d plan did you know that if you enroll in a where walmart is a preferred pharmacy, you could save up to 80% on your co-pays over other pharmacies? this could lower your prescription co-pays to as low as a dollar so you can enjoy the things that really matter. and now that we're a preferred pharmacy for many national plans, it's never been easier to save. choose any plan where walmart is a preferred pharmacy provider by logging on to walmart.com/rxplans now through december 7th. save money. live better.
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when you are an indians fan as i am, you learn to live vicariously through the thrills of other fans. >> or twins fan. it's been since 1987 for us. >> well, the red sox as you know beat the cardinals last night.
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now they're one win away from winning the world series. >> can we go together and -- what do you think, andy? >> i'm an astros fan. world series last night, first time in three games there was no whacky ending. good old pitchers duel. big poppy has been on fire this series. he doubles to make it 1-0. the game was tied all the way into the seventh inning. that's when ross comes to the plate. he doubles in another run. and that would be enough to combine to give up one run on four hits. they win game five, 3-1. they look to close out their first world series title at fenway park since 1918. for the first time ever, the world series and monday night football were played in the same city at the same time. st. louis rams were hosting the
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seattle seahawks down the street. it's only about 6 a 5% full at the football stadium, but the rams are -- watch tate here. he waves good-bye to the defender. he got a penalty on that play for taunting. they had a chance to win this one late, but on the final play, the pass is incomplete. now numerous fines and suspensions. brandon marryweather says he's going to -- he was suspended. now he says he's going to target players knees to avoid another suspension. >> to be honest, you just got to go low now. you got to end people career. you got to tear people's acls and mess up their knees.
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you kapgt hit them high anymore. you got to go low. >> wow. the nba season kicks off tonight. lebron and the heat taking on the chicago bulls. that's on tnt. that gets going at 8:00 eastern and that game is followed by the clippers and lakers. >> remember that other team lebron played for? >> you remember it well. >> thanks very much. next hour of the cnn "newsroom" is going to begin "newsroom" is going to begin right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. i'm martin savidge in for carol costello. >> i'm poppy harlow. the website for obama care is a disaster. and they're expecting to face very tough questions today about
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the website. i want to show you now live pictures if we can get you up for the hearing as it gets under way in washington. but while the presidents 'men and women do damage control, there's new concern. not about access to the website, but about access to people's insurance policies. president obama has given repeated inassurances about americans being able to keep their current plan if they want do. he's done this in speeches going back as far as four years. >> under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. >> all right. but now we're learning a lot more about that, that that may not been the case. joe johns is following the story. >> this really goes to the heart of the debate about obama care on capitol hill. the president did say you can
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keep your health insurance if you want to. said that over and over again. it was part of his main sales pitch. but it's also true that up to a couple million consumers have gotten notices that their insurance is going to be canceled. and true as well that federal regulations are saying some people are going to be dropped. the answer is that anybody who is paying close attention to this story knows that are anywh from 11 million to up to 15 million people are in that category in the private insurance market. this only applies to the private market, not people who got their
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insurance through their employer or government or medicare or medicaid or anything like that. >> is the white house addressing this right now? >> yes. the white house this morning is really repreezing its earlier advisories about grandfathering. in other words, people who bought their insurance before the law was pass the are grandfathered in unless their insurance changed. >> there's going to be a lot of questions. you said 11 million to 15 million people that this could affect. >> also getting under way, this morning on capitol hill, a hearing on stand your ground laws and whether they need to be reformed. testifying this morning was the mother of trayvon martin. it was highly debated during that case where george zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death in 2012. outrage led to widespread
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protest. critics say that stand your ground is just an excuse for some to take the law into their own handed. >> it promotes the idea that you go out there and you take care of the situation and don't listen to the police or law enforcement. >> at least 22 states have stand your ground laws. several other states have some version of it. so let's bring in our cnn analysts. trayvon's mom says it is time for states to clarify these laws. good morning, by the way. i should have started with that. will today's hearing really change anything. sunny, we'll start with you. >> i've spoken to trayvon's mother many times about this. and i think the trial a made it clear that these laws do need further scrutiny and i think
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it's a step in term chz possible reform. it's important for the senate to look at this because there are civil rights, i think implications, martin, when you have racial profiling and stand your ground laws mixing. and so perhaps that is something that this senate will look at. it's an important step that's needed. because law enforcement folks that i've spoken to by and large are really against stand your ground. they're not in support of it. they certainly feel that it has inspired a lot of vigilante justice when you look at the numbers. so there is certainly further scrutiny that needs to be done in terms of these laws. >> paul, i'm going to bring you in. but first let me tell you this, the mother the jordan davis is always expected to testify. stand your ground has been the focus in that particular case. do you think this helps bolster the argument by some that this law really encourages
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unnecessary confrontations and promotes racial profiling? >> it's a difficult question in terms of how the federal government can deal with it. because if it it uns out to be true, and i think by the way that steakcally most the victims of the stand your ground law tend to be black and african-american and hispanics. so you can make an argument clearly that at least from a statistical standpoint the victims are people of color. however, the federal government generally doesn't amend criminal laws of the states. and this would be very, very unusual if they would intervene in some way and say we're going to redefine self-defense in florida and other states that have stand your ground laws. it would be unprecedented for such a federal intervention. in the end, we'll hear about all of this and it's going to cast a lot of light on the problem. but in the end, the solution lies in the state legislator not
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federal. >> paul and sunny, thank you for joining us this morning. >> i want to take you now back to washington. republican senator lindsey graham has turned up the heat on the obama administration for the handling of last year's benghazi terror attack and the aftermath. he's threatening to block all president nominations before the senate until survivors of the attack testify before the congress. take a listen. >> but foregod's sake, let the house have a select committee where you get three or four committees together to look at this situation as one unit rather than stove piping. and where are the survivors? 14 months later, the survivors, the people who su survived the attack in benghazi has not been made available. i'm going to block every appointment in the united states senate until the survivors are
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being made available to congress. i'm tired of hearing from people on tv and reading about stuff in books chld we need to get to the bottom of this. >> let me give you context here. those comments from lindy graham came a day after a new "60 minutes" report where eyewitnesses described warning signs that they saw leading up to it. one, a former british soldier described concerns he saw with another group of libyans who were charged with defending the compound. listen to him. >> itself saying, these guys are no good. you need to get them out of here. >> you always kept saying if this place is attacked, these guys are not going to stand and fight. >> i used to say it all the time. in the end i got quite bored of hearing my own voice saying it. >> all right green beret commander lieutenant wood was lung of the top officials.
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he told us that he raced concerns three months before they were killed in that attack. >> i made it known in a meeting, you were going to get attacked and you are going to get attacked in benghazi. it's going to happen. >> shut down. >> shut down operations. move out temporarily or change locations within the city. you are being targeted. >> this is bringing up many, many more questions and we're seeing senator lindsey graham responding to them. let's bring in athena jones on capitol hill. does he have the power to block all presidential nominees? can he do this? >> reporter: yes, he does. one senator can single-handedly hold up the entire confirmation process. to get past it, it will require a 60 vote threshold. and that's difficult to get. but under senate rules, he can
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do this. this is something that we've heard from senator graham about this before. he's been a long time critic of the administration's handling and explanation of how the benghazi attack went down. and you may remember he put a hold on the confirmation of john brennan as cia director because he wanted to learn from the white house just when the president first contacted the libyan government about this attack. so this is not the first time the white house has had to confront this sort of thing. this is the way the senate works. one person can hold up the whole process. >> when we spoke earlier on the show, you said there hasn't been a lot of reaction to this on the hill. and lindsey graham said this about 24 hours ago. we've got some critical nominees here. janet yellen? >> exactly. you have not only these sir kirt court judge positions but fed chief janet gellen.
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she has to replace benefit bernanke who is stepping down in january and this would be a really big deal, of course, if senator graham comes through on this threat. i reached out to senator majority leader harry reid's office. still no reaction. we are asking. but this is no doubt -- this is a big deal if he stands in the way on this. like i said, you've got to get passioned -- you've got to get the 60 votes and that can be very difficult on capitol hill. >> and he says he's going to unless we see some of the testimony from survivors. still to come, the countdown to the showdown. >> that's the woman in charge of obama care and it's rollout will face committee tomorrow. we're monitoring it all for you. we'll have more right after this. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that.
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well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, it does make a sound? ohhh...ohhh...oh boy! i'm falling. everybody look out! ahhhhh...ugh. want to take you live right now to washington, d.c. the administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services. her testimony critical because she was at the helm of the obama care website. listen in. >> it creates a new market which allows people to access quality affordable health care. it allows them to have insurance options. it creates a pooling of consumers into statewide group plans that can spread the risk between sick and healthy people, between young and old, and then bargains on their behalf to get
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them the best deal on health insurance. by creating competition where there wasn't competition before, insurers are now eager for new business and has created new health care plans with more choices. the premiums were lower than expected an millions will qualify for tax credits. and we know that consumers are eager. and to the millions who have tried to shop and enroll, i want to apologize to you that it has not worked as well as it should. i want to assure that you healthcare.gov can and will be fixed. we are working around the clock to deliver the shopping experience that you deserve. we are seeing improvements each week. and we said publicly by the end of november the experience on the site will be smooth for the vast majority of users. over the past month millions have visited health care.gov to
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take a look at coverage. and in that time, nearly 700,000 applications for coverage has been submit the across the nation. more than half of those are in the federal marketplace alone. this confirms that american people are looking for quality, affordable health care coverage. we know that the consumer experience has been fraus traiting for many americans. some have this trouble locking into the site and others are receiving slow response times. this initial experience has not lived up to our expectations or the expectations of the american people and it is not acceptable. we are committed to improving the performance and have made progress. in the first few days when the site went live, few customers could create an account. now over 930% can. we've updated the site and fixing bugs. and we've added more capacity in order to meet demand. we're pleased with these quick
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improvements and parts of the system are working well. for example, the data hub, the routing tool that provides an efficient and secure way to verify information submitted by consumers is sending determinations to the market place in less than 1.2 seconds. social security has reported 4.2 million transactions with the hub and the irs has responded to 1.3 million requests. we know there's still significant work to do. and we've called in a team of experts to analyze the site, identify and prioritize fixes. we've spent the last week going over that. and while these problems will require a lot of hard work, the bottom line conclusion is that this is fixable. to get the job done, we've identified a clear path forward, a lot of fixes to be undertaken one by one. we've enlisted the help of qssi
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to serve as general contractor for this project. they are familiar with this system and the work they provided for hetds care.gov is working well and performing as it should. qssi has the skills and expert tease to help us address these problems. they will work with leadership and contractors to prioritize the needs fixes and make sure they get done. we are committed to improving the experience with healthcare.gov. i encourage people to continue to apply by phone or mail or finding local help in their community. the fact is, the product of the affordable care act, a marketplace for quality, affordable health insurance will work. product is not going away and the people are not going to continue to wait. we know the price is not changing. we annoy americans have time to apply and enroll in affordable coverage. thank you. >> thank you.
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administrator, how many people have enrolled in the exchanges? >> that number will not be available until mid-november. we have over 700,000 who have come meeted applications. >> so you know the applicants. but do you know the enrollees. that's the number that matters. >> we will not have that until mid-november. we expect the initial number to be small. and i think you've seen that in our projects. that was the massachusetts experience as well. >> i have to tell you the numbers i'm hearing are not good in my home states of michigan. very small number. in fact i think i could have a meeting in my office and have all of them fit in of the people who have successfully enrolled in the plans. i understand that cms's stated goal is 7 million enroll leez by
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the end of march. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> and of that 7 million, 2.3 million of those need to be young and healthy. those are your metric trix. is that correct? >> or i don't that that with me. >> there was a memo prepared by the assistant secretary for planning and health. are you aware of that press story and memo? i think it went through your office to secretary sebelius. >> that went through the enrollment numbers? >> yes. and it said that there were month to month predictions of enrollment numbers showing a path to the 7 million that i mention the. could you make that available to the committee office. >> certainly. >> according to the press report that the memo estimated that 494,620 people would sign up for health insurance under the program by october 31st. now, obviously we're very near that date.
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have you met that estimate? >> we will not have those numbers available until mid-november. >> so do you not know? do you not have any idea was how many people have enrolled or -- >> folks are still in the process of enrolling. both in the statebased exchange and in the federal exchange. and we will have those numbers available in mid-november. >> are you getting those numbers? >> not yet. >> you have no numbers on who has enrolled? >> mid-november those will be available. >> so no one is forwarding even weekly updates on -- >> i think you've seen some of the press. and i think that was on the graph earlier about what states have listed. we will get those numbers in mid-november. >> but end you're not publicly releasing those numbers. but i'm asking, do you have any idea of on a weekly basis how many people enrolled? i mean, how do you not know how many people have enrolled? >> chairman, we will have those
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numbers available in mid-november. >> is your staff updating you on those? i realize you're not prepared to give this to the committee even though this is a government program and we're flying to do oversight here and understand what the problems are. but do you have some idea of what those problems might be in terms of the numbers? >> i'm not quite sure what you're asking me. >> well, you've said that 700,000 people have completed the application process. so clearly you're getting some information. do you have any idea of how many of those can move to the next step of enrolling? looking at plans? how many are eligible, how many have decided to enroll? >> once individuals complete the application, then they go into the shopping ex-sprns where they can look at plans. we do get numbers on the number of applications. and then we need to break those out. that's what i'm saying, this is part of the rollout that we will give in mid-november for the
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october data. >> so you do have the applications which is the 700,000 number. but you don't have how many people successfully enrolled? >> i'm saying people are in the process of enrolling. >> of those $700,000, do you know how many are eligible for medicaid at this point? >> we have some information on who is and obviously states have their own information about that. and it depends on what's going on inside. it's state specific. >> can you share with the committee the information you have about those that have enrolled that are eligible for medicaid? >> we will also have that information available in mid-november as well. >> because that would mean of those 700,000, a significant portion could not -- would not be in the exchange if they're qualifying for medicaid, isn't that correct? >> we'll have that information available to you in mid-november. >> but the law is if they're eligible for medicaid, they're not enrolling in the exchange, that's my question. >> correct. >> so there could be a
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significant portion of that 700,000 that would not be enrolling in an exchange, is that correct? >> there could be numbers in there eligible for medicaid. >> do you know how many of. 700,000 have employer insurance and therefore will not be eligible for the exchange? >> those individuals who have employer sponsored insurance, usually at the end the application they're asked that and they usually don't proceed if that's the case. >> do you know how many of those 700,000 are young adults, say under the age of 26, who might choose to stay on their parents' plan if it's cheaper? >> i do not. >> and do you know how many are undocumented aliens and who may not be eligible to enroll in the exchange? >> as you're aware, we actually have a connection through the data hub to check for that. and if they are not eligible, they -- they do not complete the application and do not go on to shop. >> but of these 700,000, do you
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have any idea how many are just looking and how many are trying to enroll? >> we actually look at the people who are shopping. and obviously the majority of the people who are completing applications are there to actually purchase insurance. so they continue to go through the shopping experience. >> well, there are media reports that say as many as 80% of that 700,000 number are actually eligible for medicaid. is that a number that you would dispute? >> i don't know where that report is or how they would get that information. >> if that's true, that's the only information we're getting, frankly today. i frankly would have hoped for a little bit more from you. but if that's true, then less than 140,000 of these applicants are potentially enroll lees in the exchange and that's assuming that they don't have employer provided coverage and can't stay on their parents' plan or otherwise ineligible in some other way. but that means you're likely to
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hit less than one-quarter of the estimate of 494,620. how many people did you estimate would enroll between november 15th and december 15th, which are two weeks off from that period? >> i don't have that in front of me. i'll be happy to get that information. >> if you could get that to the committee, i would appreciate that. but i think given that the backend systems aren't working and the insurers have resorted to manually enrolling people one by one, i just think the system doesn't literally have the human resource capacity to manually enroll the numbers that are being projected here. i assume that many people are holding off are the young and healthy. so the risk pools in these exchanges are not going to align with the projections. we're northwest going to miss the target, it appears that we're going to miss the
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demographic makeup as well. and that's important to have a functioning system. if the demographics are wrong and there aren't as many young people enrolling, what happens then? what happens to premiums. >> i think the premiums are locked down for 2014. so obviously the next six months of enrollment are critical. i'm remind that ep rolement occurs until march 21st of 2014. i'll remind you that the massachusetts experience was slow initially and started to ramp up over time. we expect the same type of projections. >> but it doesn't look like you're even meeting your own projections that you had prepared. >> i have not listed any information on enrollment. i think there's assumptions that you're making. >> i'm referring to this associated press memo that i appreciate you're willing to give to the committee that said that half a million people would sign up by october 31st. and that they would enroll.
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but if -- if we don't meet this demographic of 2.3 million young people, i mean, it's clear that premiums will go through the roof, whether in the next few months or in the future. and if that's where we're headed, and it appears that we are, how will you provide relief to individual americans who don't want or can't afford this insurance and how do we prevent the premium spike in 2015 as insurers will readjust their prices to reflect the fwaul enroll lee demographic? >> currently if you look at the premiums for 2014, we did not see spikes. we saw a very competitive marketplace. in fact, we have over 200 issuers just in the federal exchange alone who are offering more than 3,000 plans. some markets have as many as 54 plans in a market.
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we've seen 25% new issuers in markets. so far what we're seeing is the opposite of what you're suggesting. >> have you enrolled in the plan? >> i have employer sponsored insurance. i would not be eligible for the plan. >> from the federal government? >> yes. >> so you're not participating in obama care? >> i'm participating in the employer sponsored. >> so you have government insurance. so you're not -- have you gone on the site and tried to enroll or tried to shop for plans? >> i haven't gone on to shop for the plans. i went on and signed up for an account just to see what it looked like and go through the application process. but did not sign up for coverage. i'm not eligible for coverage nor did i shop. >> i want to mention to you a letter that i received from my district. and this man wrote me and said, my wife has been recently informed by her insurance carrier that her health care
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policy does not comply with the affordable air act. now we must purchase a new policy at an 18% increase in our premi premium. what happened to the if you like your insurance, you can keep it? what would you say to that individual? >> i would take them back to the preaffordable care act age. if you were in the individual market, you were living in a 50% term. half the people didn't stay on their policies. they were kicked off for preexisting conditions. they saw their premiums go up at least to % a year. and there were no protections for them. and sometimes they were in plans that they thought were fine until they needed hopization and they found out it don't cover that or didn't cover cancer. take them back to the fact that since 1986, health care costs and coverage have been the number one issue for small businesses for the last 20 to 30 years. and we've been talking about it for the last 20 or 30 years.
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that's why i came into this job is to try to deal with this issue. now what i would say is this, now, if in fact the issuer has decided to change the plan, didn't have to, planned were grand fathered in in 2010, if they didn't make i significant changes, they could keep the plan that they have. but some insurance companies have decided and i think that's what you were referring to in your opening statement, that they want to offer new plans. if they do that, they have to come into the requirements of affordab affordable care act. you cannot judge on preexisting. you cannot discriminate based on sex. there are a lot of things that are required that actually protect consumers. but these premium increases were going on a long time prior to the affordable care act. and we've seen the most premium moderation in the last three years than we've seen probably in the last 15 or 20 years.
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>> well, the carrier told them that the plan didn't comply. but nothing you said had anything to do with how they can get their costs down. i think that's the real problem that we're seeing here is that the costs are -- >> what i would dell in a individual is if they're carrier is tell e telling them they're changing the plan, they would need to go take a look at what's available in their state and market. which is certainly something that's available to them through the exchange. >> at an 18% increase. with that i'll recognize mr. levin. >> well, thank you. a warm welcome. the chairman talked about the website and you said it's going to be fixed. and i might say, if everybody would pitch in to make it work, the goals that have been set
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would be more readily met. that's what happened with prescription drug program. we all pitched in to make it work. and it had major problems at the beginning. and instead of standing in the way, we said, we didn't vote for it, let's make it work, and it began to work. if we all had the same spirit about aca, it would be more than helpful. but then the chairman asked you about the -- the notices that are coming from the insurance companies. and i would like to ask you about that. a gentleman from michigan who had an $800 bluecross plan got this notice from michigan bluecross. went into the website with the help of and a half garretts and ended up with a bluecross silver hmo plan with tax credits in
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that case instead of $800 a month, it's $77 a month. and let me refer you to the interview on "meet the press" with the bluecross florida ceo. he was asked by david gregory, in florida, the oefdest and largest health care provider, florida bluecross, confirmed that it is cutting 300,000 policies. and this is what the chairman of bluecross of florida said. we're not cutting people, and i quote, we're actually transit n transitioning people. what we've been doing is informing folks that their plan doesn't meet the test of the essential health benefits, therefore they have the choice of many options that we make available through the exchange. and in fact, with subsidy. many people will be getting better plans at a lesser cost.
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so this has become a matter of legitimate discussion. and i think all of us would appreciate your addressing it. >> sir, again, going back to prior to the affordable air act days, these individuals in an individual market had no protections, no guarantees of coverage and still being charged somewhere between 20% or more premium increases year every year. they could be kick sd out at any time for preexisting condition. coverage when they did not. had- and when they went in and had a diagnosis, they found out maybe they had a $5,000 hospital limit or certain disclaimers. then there was always if you were diagnosed withs asthma or high blood pressure or some other disease, you might not be able to get coverage at all.
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that's what's different. that's the first part. the second part is, in 2010, we told issuers to try to give some transition time if they wanted to keep policies as they were currently defined, whether they were in a group market or an individual market, they could. and so some of them elected to do that. now some of them are moving to the new standards. and the standards under the fortable care act are pretty simple. you have to have the 80% mlr so you can't be taking money more than the 20% marketing advertising profit. you had to meet the health benefits. you had to define deductibles in clear terms so people would know what they were buying. and you had to have choices. then there are folks in the individual market who when they go on the site may qualify for tax credits. but this is not -- this problem existed long before the affordable care act.
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now folks are transitioning to the new standards of affordable care act which guarantee you conditioned be denied or won't be kicked off a policy because you develop a problem, you maybe eligible for tax credits depending on your income. these are important protections that are now available through the affordable care act. and i think that's important. >> mr. johnson is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here. i've been hearing from folks back home who rightfully so are very serious about their concerns and fears about their health care. steven, from plano, tried to purchase insurance through the exchange but ended up more confused a frustrated. operators on the 1-800 line didn't have answers. they simply reiterated that anyone could sign up for the
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exchange, but he should wait until later that evening or the next day to apply since the systems were having technical difficulty. worse, a single far and police officer in plano went to renew his 11-year-old daughter's plan. she has no medical problems. yet her premiums doubled. doubled. those are real stories of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters who have to live with the law that up to now has completely failed them. the administration delayed the employer mandate for one year. the treasury witnessed before the committee testified the reason the administration granted big business a one-year delay is, quote, employers and their representatives have requested transition relief for 2014 because of concerns about the difficulty or cost of complying with the employer
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mandate. secretary sebelius and before this committee and repeatedly said obama care was ready. it clearly wasn't. doesn't the failed launch indicate many individuals are going to have to at least have as much difficulty complying with the individual mandate as big business had with the employer mandate, yet from the announcement last night, you've only given individuals a six-week delay? cms announced that 700,000 people had submitted applications for exchange coverage nationwide. but with all of the challenges you have been facing, there are some serious questions about what these applicants know. cbs news reported, quote, the shop and browse feature is not giving consumers a real picture. in some cases, people could end up paying a double what they see on the website. so how many applicants applied
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based on the wrong preem numb informati -- premium information? do you know? >> the completed applications were done -- the 700,000, these were individuals who completed applications and figured out if they were eligible for tax credit. i don't know where cbs news is getting their information about tax credits, so i can't address that. ill say that in the individual mandate issue, that folks can apply through march 31st. we have said you publicly that well have the website in good working order by the end of the november. we have predicted that folks will increase the enrollment in december and probably again in march. so we believe we're in good shape to handle that. >> if you've identified the problem and are taking steps to identify who received faulty price information, apologize and
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provide the right information, are you doing that now? >> yes, sir. if we've given people the wrong information, we will certainly correct it. but i'm not sure what cbs news is referring to. >> i would like to bring your attention to a story with the headline, quote, how healthcare.gov could be hacked. let me quote from the article, security experts say the federal health insurance website is vulnerable to a common technique that hackers use to steal personal information. as you may know, i'm chairman of the subcommittee and one of my longest outstanding problems has been to protect the social security numbers. for the record, is obama care website 100% safe from hackers who could steal american's personal information including their social security numbers? yes or no? >> we follow all of the standards to protect information including social security
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numbers. >> are you trying to say yes? >> am i trying to say yes that we follow the standards to protect the information? yes, sir. >> you know, folks are confused and scared. they've heard horror stories. how can they trust the federal government to not only fix the website but more importantly give them the assurance that their personal information will be safe and their health care will be affordable, that if they want to keep their current plan, they can do so? the problems don't stop at the technical failures of a website. the real problems stems from the failure to deliver what this law promised the american people. >> mr. chairman, welcome too our distinguished committee. you may wonder why the administration appears to be under such severe attack by some
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members of this committee, especially as it relates to our goal to provide health care for 30 million americans that can't afford or don't have access to it. but it should give you some small comfort to know that historically the republican party always fought vigorously against these type of programs. i don't think that one republican voted for the social security act even those old enough to enjoy the benefits -- >> that's not accurate. >> maybe one or two. i don't know. >> no. >> but they opposed medicare. i spoke with president johnson and he shared with me at the ranch the people that had signed off on medicare. and anyway, it's big government even if it saves live 's. who cares?
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you're against big government. why should obama be spared the attack because he wants americans to be healthy and strong and productive? we have to be consistent and you guys and ladies have been. what i don't understand is that people aren't born as republican and democrats and there has to be somebody, regardless of party label, that has suffered the embarrassment and pain of being denied an insurance policy because they've been sick before. the people who actually need health care the most are too high of a risk, but some of the insurance companies. and this body, republican and democrats allow things like this to happen. when i was a kid, if my mother took three of us, three children to see a doctor, and we weren't sick, they would think she was crazy. because you couldn't afford a doctor. now health care will provide you getting the type of treatment to
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avoid you being sick and having to lose your dignity and in a personal emergency that provide the most expensive health care that we have. but republicans who have always been admired for being fiscal conservatives have certainly seen the price of health care, the lack of quality that we may have today, soar to become such a part of our national budget that in my opinion it's a threat to our national security. because as prone as some of you are to entering into conflict with other countries, you need healthy young people to fight these wars. and health care is important from birth throughout one's life. so i don't know how you're going to explain when this program, which is destined to skied, how
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politically you're going to explain your positions today. and since your entire political program is locked into hatred for the president and this program, it seems to me that we have to find other ways to for us to politically combat each other. because i hate to see the day that this no republican party. and i have to rely just on my party for justice and fair play. and so we have to come together some kind of way to see what's best for america. now, you may not like this program. and it certainly has been disappointing as a start. but what i want to see more from this committee is how can we improve and get quality health care for all americans? this has to be a part of the goal that all of you have. and you also have to recognize that when we're lucky enough to have public servants to work for
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the administration, whether democrat or republican, that they are servants the same way we are and they deserve some dignity as well. and so for america, i hope and have every reason to believe, like social security and medicare, that the goodness of the program will prevail. and if there's anything that we can do to help you, and there maybe some republicans that join with me, to make certain that we get rid of what is not working and make certain everyone has access to health care, i wish i could see the politics involved in this. because i am a partisan. but a stronger america means a stronger party. and that's what we all are here for. and i want to thank you for your dedication and to -- for you to recognize that it's all political and we have to do our job and get on with it. thank you for your service.
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>> thank you. mr. brady is recognized. >> just a quick fact check on the blast from the past. republicans did support social security and medicare. and more recently republican were the ones that reformed medicare to add the important prescription drug benefit so we could have seniors lead healthier lives and stay out of hospitals and enjoy their grandchildren more. what's become clear the fall flaw is not the website, it's the law itself. this is what happened when we inject 159 new federal agencies between you and your health care. this was supposed to be the easy part. wait until you see the government making decisions about patient care. about reimbursements and treatments for -- that you receive from your local doctor and hospital. i have a great deal of respect for you and i suspect many republicans do. yet, the white house, secretary sebelius, you and your staff
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made repeated claims to the american public and to congress that everything would be ready on time. everything was a go. none of that proved to be true. now we're told everything will be okay very soon. so why should the american people believe you now? >> congressman brady, i would go back to what has worked in the three three and a half years since the affordable care act was implemented. we have been able to make a difference in the lives of coverage of young people. we've been -- >> but specifically on the website and the exchanges. why should the american people believe you now? you've had nearly four years to get it ready. now you're saying in four weeks more it will be great. what's different? why should anyone believe these claims? >> because i think we've identified two major problems. one had to do with the initial
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volume. and despite our best volume projections, we underestimated the volume of the interest in the site. >> you noted the volume isn't the same as the applicants and the enrollment. you yourself visit the site. clearly you weren't shopping for it. others did as well. so chairman camp's point, the number of applicants and enroll lees still not known is pretty modest, wouldn't you agree? >> i will tell you that the number of visitors and the number of people interested in completing applications was larger than our initial projections. and we worked those off of the 7 million number that chairman mentioned and we worked it off history with medicare part d. we've added capacity to the system and improved system performance. the second thing is we have found some what i will call functional or glitches, as we call them in the public term, in
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the actual application itself which we're repairing. and that is the gradual improvements that you will see over the next four weeks. that's why i'm confident about the end of november. >> my constituents are prieten frightened. the clock is ticking on a website that's broken. their health care isn't a glitch. it's what they depend upon. so, you know, you've been described as a quarterback of the obama care rollout. i'm sure that's not the term you chose for yourself. but can you guarantee no american will experience a gap in their health care? >> so what i can guarantee is that we have a system that's working. we're going to improve the speed of that system -- >> excuse me. >> yes? >> you're saying the system right now is working? >> i'm saying it's working. it's just not working at the speed that went and at the
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success rate that went. those are the things we're working on. we have alternative methods for folks. they can use the call center, paper applications and then personal assistance available in each state. we can reach out to each individual and help them select a plan and enroam. so yes, sir. >> so my point, this is not supposed to be fixed by november 1st. people have just two weeks to apply, enroll,en confirmed. so what happens on january 1st when they have an illness, they need patient care then, and have not heard back from the government? what do they do then. >> they have until march 31st to enroll. >> no, but their plan has been canceled as millions americans have -- >> you're talking about people who -- >> i'm not trying -- i'm just trying -- what my constituents want to know, what happens? >> the individuals who have received notices from their
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issuers is a different situation. they can certainly obviously sign up, transfer, as we talked about earlier with bluecross of florida, or they can go on the exchange or call the call center. >> but my point is, it's been canceled, they don't have health care. they tried to get on the website unsuccess it willy. they don't know if they're enrolled. it's january 1st. their facing a gap in coverage. >> i'm telling you they can call the call center today and we will help them. we also have people in their individual markets that can help them in person. so there are more methods than just the website. i think that's important. >> i think what's become clear as well is obama care is not ready. the question is, why don't we make it voluntary? why don't we give americans a choice so they're not forced into this health care that they
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don't want? >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. rangle has asked me to correct something. the vote coming out of the committee was on a party line vote. there were no republicans who voted for it -- will the gentleman yield? >> or the 81 who finally voted for it. >> 84% of republicans voted for the social security act 77 years ago. i'm glapd we're debating current events here? >> with the way my republicans colleagues have been fretting over the success of the affordable care act exchanges, you would never know they spent $24 billion shutting down the country to get rid of it. suddenly they seem desperate to see a bill that they didn't want actually work. it's like the hall joke, the engs changes are terrible and not enough people with enroll.
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we're only four weeks into medicare -- or into it. medicare wasn't built in a day. part d didn't roll out with snags along the way. as others have mentioned, many of the republicans who are now calling for blood over this rollout were begging for patience on part d of the kinks of that rollout were easily brushed off by many gop alarmists who sit on this committee. we waited six months to hold an oversight hearing on part d. we're barely four weeks into this one and we're already declaring it dead. it is premature death. we would have all loved to see this launch be seamless and smooth, but we can't get caught up in the glitches and technical difficulties and lose our perspective. health lines are up and running. i want to put the first chart up. because i think that you need to know that it's working in some
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states in this country. we've had a health plan finder in the state of washington -- >> we're going to cutaway for the time being now. you're listening to the house ways and means committee on the obama care website fiasco. this is going to be a very tough day for her. and what it does is set the stage, of course, for her boss, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius tomorrow. she's going to face a grilling of her own. and this is just the warmup. republican congressman cory gardner sited on the committee as does democratic congressman from new jersey. thank you both for being with us. let me ask you this, what do you think of what you've heard so far? >> i think it's clear from the testimony that lack of transparency with this administration is a preexisting condition.
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the obama care rollout has moved into one big obama care copout. as she can't answer basic questions about how many people are in and have received the insurance in the exchange. she can't answer questions about young people joining. can't answer questions about if the targts numbers are going to be hit by october 31st, how many people are in today. >> i want to get you to representative. thank you for getting together to talk about this. what is your response? because in that first long set of questioning from chairman camp, we herd them ask over and over for serve numbers. can you tell us how many people have enrolled and how many are in which age group. and she said repeatedly, we will have knows numbers in mid-november. what's your reaction to that? did you expect and want hard numbers so far? >> no. i mean, look the bottom line is that the enrollment period continues and more and more people are signing up either
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through the website or through other means. and the insurance doesn't go into effect until january 1st. people can go, you know, to the 1-800 number go to an insurance agent. they can, you know, very various places in my district on friday we took people to the food bank where they can sign up. so at this point, we're just trying to get as many people as possible to sign up. they don't need the website in order to sign up. that's the point i think she was trying to make. and the republicans keep, you know -- i think the republicans are trying to scare people. they give the impression that, you know, well, i don't know if you should use the website. if you don't want to use the website, try one of the other means. the issue now isn't how many people have signed up today. the issue is how many people will be signed up by january 1st. i think that we're making a real attempt to fix the website. as of last week, i think 3 out of 10 people could enroll.
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and by the end of november it should be 100%. but again, i don't know why there's all the emphasis on the wbsite. >> before we run out of time, i do want to ask you both, tomorrow, kathleen sebelius, what do you want to hear from her other than, maybe, i resign? >> i would like to hear from her why the president's promise if you like your health care plan, you can keep it, isn't true. and yet he still on his website said, if you like your health care plan you can keep it. i'm one of those who got a letter. we had one that was canceled. i got the same letter that millions of americans are getting. yet, i would like to hear why he told me i could keep it if i liked it, and yet it's being canceled. >> this is not true. look the fact of the matter -- >> i'll give you my letter. >> if your insurance is being
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canceled, it's not canceled because of the fortable care act. >> the letter said it was. >> the bottom line is that if you have your insurance, you can keep it. if your company is canceling your policy, it's not because of the affordable care act. what it does is expand your options. if you don't like your insurance you can get a better policy at a more affordable price. i know it's true that companies and insurance companies are using it as an excuse. it's simply not true. >> i have an individual -- >> there's a technicality there that our joe johns reported on earlier today that when you got your policy, did you have it before obama care was passed or did you get it since it was passed. we have a minute and a half left in the show. is this a precursor to kathleen
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sebelius testifying on the hill. what is your main question to her that you want an answer to? >> i think she's answered the question about the website, which is that they have now working. and by the end of november, everyone will be able to enroll. i'm very concerned that this is just -- in committee meeting is just another effort to sabotage the ford able care act and not get to the bottom of the glitch. i don't even know why they're having the hearing. but if they're going to have it, let's hope that they focus on positive ways to get rid of the glitch and have the website work again and how people can sign up without using the website. >> gentlemen, thank you both for staying. paul ryan is speaking now. went to go back to the hearing. >> but when they go on the website, are you verifying whether or not their parents have a plan that they're
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eligible for before determining whether they this themselves get a subsidy? >> it is part of the application process. i can get you more information on it. >> here is the point. look, two weeks ago in the cr we pass the a law that president obama signed, quote, prior to i can imagine such credits and deductions available, the secretary shall stf to congress that the exchanges verify such he will gi ability consistent with the act. here is the question. are we really verifying at the front end whether a person is eligible for these subziz for not? here is why this matters. if they're not eligible and once we reconcile these records, they get taxed the money back off of their refund. this is what i mean when i say rude aquakenings. people are signing up for their insurance and getting subziz funded by taxpayers, the irs is telling us their confused about how to do this.